Farewell to the best biology magazine

The very best biology magazine in the world, Asimov Press, announced they’re winding down (for now). I’ve been an advisor to them since before they started, and I’m very sad to hear the news, even though I’m looking forward to what the team behind it – Niko McCarty and Xander Balwit – are doing next. At Asimov, they published some of the deepest and most thoughtful writing on biology and actually made it feel enchanting – so unlike the textbook descriptions most people encounter at school. It’s the kind of writing I’ve tried to achieve in my own work. They covered topics across the history of technology, biological curiosities, ideas for science policy reform, and visual explainers of how molecular processes work. Here are some of my favourite pieces: Origins of the lab mouse, Making the micropipette, Where’s the synthetic blood?, Before they hatch, Driving Toward Nanopores, and you know what, I’ll even include a piece of my own, Measuring the Black Death. At the end of their farewell post, they leave open the possibility that it might be revived in the future; I really hope it happens one day!